Burnt Skull: Sewer Birth LP (12XU, 2014)

Austin duo whose name entirely matches their sound. Hard, noisy sludge-metal-noise-rock with ungodly vocal effects. This sounds every bit as dark and evil and hellish as it looks. Thick pounding drums, flaming guitars, and supremely devilish vocals. Sometimes approaches early Swans or Godflesh territory. “God Hole” and “No Cross” are faster, getting closer to horror-punk territory. Of the 4 instrumental tracks, “Uniform” is maybe the most industrial, “Lord’s Prayer Underwater” is a short noisy interlude with some submerged talking, “Abduction (Lost Underground)” is a REALLY noisy interlude, sounding like a barrel explosion in a sewer, and “Abysm/Rotting Plain” is an outro that sounds like scraping metal in a sewer. This one effectively burned my skull!